1st RCS tank, update plus advanced ?'s

[JohnPaul]

Hi everyone,

First of all, thanks to all of you who gave me advice a few weeks back when I was setting up my first RCS tank. By using some crushed coral, I now have the pH stabilized at around 7.2 or 7.3 and everyone seems happy. Of the initial dozen or so RCS I received, two of my females are now berried and two others have rather pronounced saddles so it's looking like I'll be having babies soon.

Now that the tank has been set up a few weeks, a few things I wanted to ask about...

1. Ostracods, ostracods everywhere! The tank is full of them. They're actually kinda funny-looking, "cute" (in their own way) creatures. I've read that their presence is usually an indication of pretty clean water (good sign). However, they are also detrivores, and I am wondering if I should be concerned that they would start competing with my shrimp for food? The largest of them are probabl half a centimeter long, so they aren't exactly tiny little things.

2. Would "regular tank maintenance" ever be enough to scare a berried female into dropping her eggs? i.e. water changes, or planting a few plants, etc. (This is in a 10g tank btw). I am guessing no but the last thing I want to do is cause my females to drop just becaus my hand is in there adding a few plants...

3. Feeding, right now I am putting in about a quarter of a spirulina sinking tablet every 3-4 days and nothing else. They flock towards it when it's there and it's usually gone in a few hours. Does that sound like a reasonable feeding schedule?

4. My shrimp are very active, always foraging for food. But the funny thing is, they don't seem to show much interest in oak leaves! I have one in the tank, and every once in a while one of the shrimp will be on it, but certainly it doesn't seem to be particularly attractive to them. They spend most of their time foraging on the substate or on the driftwood & plants I have. They love the big anubias, and also the vals. Sometimes I'll see them in the java moss but honestly, not as much as on the other plants. Kinda odd (I was assuming, from what I've read, that the java moss and the oak leaves would be their two favorite things), so I figured I'd mention it just in case it should be a cause for worry. Like I said, they seem happy, they are always foraging for food--just not where they are "supposed" to be!

5. Of my two berried females, one has very bright yellow-orange colored eggs, the other has green-colored eggs. From doing a little searching on the forums here I *think* that is nothing to be worried about, but I couldn't find a real strong consensus on the point. True or false? FWIW, I got my RCS from a private hobbyist/breeder and not a pet store, and both females are quite strongly red so I don't think there's any chance they aren't truly RCS (though I'm the first to admit I'm not an expert, if I might be wrong let me know...)

Thanks everyone!

[ToddnBecka]

No worries about the ostracods, unless their numbers suddenly start declining. That would be an indication of water quality issues.

I've never seen my shrimp bothered about a hand in the tank, rearranging or planting isn't enough to stress females to the point of dropping eggs.

I feed my shrimp twice daily, but there are a couple hundred, and 3 dwarf crayfish as well. I'd try every other day for yours. As long as they are still actively interested in the food, it won't be wasted and/or pollute the water.

I have an oak leaf in my tank, still intact after a week. The shrimp/snails prefer the softer water lily leaves, they don't last more than a day or two. The shrimp will forage wherever they find food, algae or otherwise.

Eggs will change color as they mature, visible eyes will indicate they are close to hatching.

[Mustafa]

two of my females are now berried and two others have rather pronounced saddles so it's looking like I'll be having babies soon.

Congrats!

1. Ostracods, ostracods everywhere! The tank is full of them. They're actually kinda funny-looking, "cute" (in their own way) creatures. I've read that their presence is usually an indication of pretty clean water (good sign). However, they are also detrivores, and I am wondering if I should be concerned that they would start competing with my shrimp for food? The largest of them are probabl half a centimeter long, so they aren't exactly tiny little things.

Ostracods are harmless, they won't really compete with the shrimp either as their food preferences are different.

Just one important clarification...I had written that COPEpods, are an indication of good water quality not ostracods. Many (not all) species of ostracods can actually live in quite adverse conditions.

2. Would "regular tank maintenance" ever be enough to scare a berried female into dropping her eggs? i.e. water changes, or planting a few plants, etc. (This is in a 10g tank btw). I am guessing no but the last thing I want to do is cause my females to drop just becaus my hand is in there adding a few plants...

They'll be fine.

3. Feeding, right now I am putting in about a quarter of a spirulina sinking tablet every 3-4 days and nothing else. They flock towards it when it's there and it's usually gone in a few hours. Does that sound like a reasonable feeding schedule?

If it's working for you and you're getting offspring, then don't change anything. Once you have more shrimp you can adjust your feedings accordingly. It's all dependant on your setup.

4. My shrimp are very active, always foraging for food. But the funny thing is, they don't seem to show much interest in oak leaves! I have one in the tank, and every once in a while one of the shrimp will be on it, but certainly it doesn't seem to be particularly attractive to them.

I think you, and probably many others, misunderstood my advice about putting leaf litter in the tank. I recommend covering the whole ground with leaves, not just put one leaf in a tank. With one leaf the micro-organisms on the leaf will get eaten quickly, after which the shrimp won't show much interest in the leaf until new micro-organisms have grown. With many leaves you won't have that problem, as there will always be leaves that have not been touched for a while and still have lots of micro-organisms.

Even so, don't expect shrimp to constantly flock to leaves as they would around a piece of food. That's not what the leaves are for. The shrimp will pick on them at their own pace as the leaves are conditioned by fungi and bacteria for shrimp consumption. This takes time.

5. Of my two berried females, one has very bright yellow-orange colored eggs, the other has green-colored eggs. From doing a little searching on the forums here I *think* that is nothing to be worried about, but I couldn't find a real strong consensus on the point. True or false? FWIW, I got my RCS from a private hobbyist/breeder and not a pet store, and both females are quite strongly red so I don't think there's any chance they aren't truly RCS (though I'm the first to admit I'm not an expert, if I might be wrong let me know...)

The eggs of many shrimp species can vary in coloration. That is not that much the case in red cherry shrimp. The vast majority of non-mixed red cherry shrimp have bright yellow to orange eggs. Every blue moon you might see one carrying slightly greenish eggs, but definitely not dark green. Strangely enough, the ones with greenish eggs tend to be less red (even if they are very red), than the females with bright yellow/orange eggs. So, this might just be explained by the fact that there is still some egg color variability in red cherry shrimp.

Another reason might really by hybridization with various Neocaridina sp. (not necessarily just the wild type N. denticulata sinensis). People unknowingly put various Neocaridina sp. together with red cherries...then they notice non-red young and adults in their tanks after a while...or they hear somewhere that their non-red shrimp might interbreed with their red ones and start removing them. By that time it's usually too late. Even if all non-red shrimp are removed, there will still be hybrid-red shrimp left. These shrimp might even reproduce pure-red shrimp. Many of these hybrids tend to have green eggs and many of them are knowingly or unknowingly distributed as red cherries. I don't know what category your shrimp belong to (hybrid or non-hybrid) but these are the two main scenarios.